Madison thought she was being clever. She grabbed a shovel to create a snow fort. It would protect her from a frontal assault but she made one glaring istake, she built it too close to the house. The front awning overhung her position. A well placed snowball or two would bring all that fresh snow down on top of her.

Byron chuckled under his breath. It was an inspired plan. One worthy of a genius. Byron in his heart of hearts believed he was a genius, so it all worked out well, at least to his quirky manner of thinking. It would be the perfect revenge. And then he could turn his attention to Melissa. He would devise something even more special for her. Byron would pick them off one at a time.

At this point he began to build his fort. His construct was dug out snow piled up eight inches high between he and his foes. It was not much protection, but then would not need much. A few shots to the roof and Madison would be down, out and frozen stiff. And he would make a beeline for the front door before the shock wore off.

He was in the process of building his modest fort when Melissa rose and went over to Madison’s fort.
Oh what was this, the girls sticking together? Two on one. Excellent. He would get two for the price of one.

From his location he could not see what was occuring….so he rose to check things out. The game had not started and they agreed not to begin until all forts were complete. Suspecting a trap none the less he armed himself with a pair of snowballs and came to see what was occuring.

As he arrived he saw Madison lying in the snow apparently bleeding from the head. Melissa called for his hat, Byron did not believe this was real for a moment, not after the prank they pulled earlier.

Melissa had spent a great deal of time solidifying her snowy
fortress. She knew after the stunt that she and Madison had pulled on
her employer inside would warrant heavy retaliation from him right
now.

It was at that point, that she decided she should warn Madison as
well (and also come to some sort of a truce so there would be less of
the cold and wet projectiles coming her way). But when Melissa poked
her head up to peer over at her, she saw her head disappear quickly
from view and found it to be rather odd. Since the time to begin
hadn’t been declared yet, she slipped over to investigate.

It was then that she discovered the increasing amounts of blood
pooling underneath Madison’s head and she gasped. She knew basic first
aid, but this was beyond her knowledge. “Byron! Give me your hat!”
she yelled as she pulled her own off and tried to apply pressure to the
wound to stop some of the blood loss.

With her other hand she dug inside Madison’s coat for the infamous
cellphone. Once it was in her possession, she dialed emergency
services. Someone HAD to be able to get out here!

Not only was she going to get into a snowball fight with Byron and her newfound friend Melissa but it was going to be a ferocious fight.

They’d agreed to the rules beforehand – a ten-minute build time, everyone got a bucket, a shovel, and no hard-packing the snowballs. They had to propperly “splat” on hit.

Madison was one step ahead of them, and used the shovel to create a fortress to which she could duck behind and not get splatted by – which would be handy, and then started quickly making as much ammunition as she could lay her hands on, grinning like a maniac during the process.

Soon the 10 minutes were up and everyone gave the signal, and drilling a tiny peep-hole in her fortress she then spied where Byron was, and lobbed the snowball in an arc – splatting him neatly and drawing “first blood”

Upon retrieving another snowball however she hit an unseen patch of ice, which only served to become even more slippery under the soft snow, and she landed – hard, and at a completely wrong angle.

Her head hit the ground first

Then her body followed.. but by that time she was out cold.

Madison couldn’t see anything, which was good because there was a fair bit of blood from a small cut on the back of her head…

Byron had been had. And worse he had been had by two women. They had taken advantage of his vivid imagination and played him for a fool. Needlessly to say he was not pleased. For one of the first times in his adult life he was at a loss for words. Of course this would not go unpunished. Did they honestly think that he was going to humiliated by women so they could throw this up in his face in the future. Not hardly. It would bad enough if a man did this but women, that could be allowed to slide, so to speak. Women were useful in the world, of that there was no doubt but when they started acting like equals something had to be done to put them back in their place. As his late pious father long maintained, women sprang from Adam’s rib, thus they were a cheaper cut of meat.

He had to get even. Just for the fact Madison was having such a good time with it. And so he would. But he had be crafty. Too simply say he was going to get even would put them on their guard. That would never do. He had to plot and plan, pick his moment when he would get revenge. For now he had to come across as good sport and when the time was ripe, strike and strike hard. And do so in such a manner as to let them know they had been bested.

“Very good ladies. I must admit you did put one over on me. But really Melissa, you took an terrible chance. With my skills in the martial arts I might have injured you badly. Still, it was a good joke.” He offered a pleasant smile that masked the scheming within.

A Snowman??? Madison please…it’s a raging blizzard. We should heed Melissa and wait until things settle down before considering….” He stopped in mid sentence, realizing the possibilities. Snowballs, tossing the girls in snowbanks, and other wintery forms of vengeance. And as he pondered a sly smile crossed his face. “On second thought, that is a fine idea. Just stick close to the house and we will be fine. Cleanup and find the board game later, Melissa. It’s time we had some fun.”

Melissa looked outside again and shook her head.”It’s still a bit icky out.I’m not ready to risk it just yet.” she explained with a soft smile. Madison wasn’t nearly as bad as she had originally perceived her to be, and that brought a great deal of comfort to Melissa. If Byron was looking to rekindle some old flames, she wasn’t going to stand in the way… Madison wasn’t going to take her job and they could continue on as they always had done–there would be nothing wrong with that.

“I seem to have forgotten…” she said as she turned to Byron, “Isn’t there one of those movie games around here? I know there are things in the closet upstairs. I’ve been meaning to clean it out but haven’t gotten around to it yet…” she admitted, knowing he hadn’t noticed at all.

“And be careful, I’ll get the ketchup cleaned up in a moment, but we don’t want you to fall in the meantime.” she said, looking over to Byron and smirking broadly.

Madison giggled as she stood up fully, brushing her clothing off and looking over at Melissa, struggling to keep the breaths from escaping by clapping a hand over her mouth.

“Oh god. The look on his face. Priceless.” She stripped off her jacket and gave Byron a big hug, to show no offense was meant. “Sorry, but we just felt we had to do that.”

Turning to Melissa “let me help you with that cocoa. Maybe we can play scrabble afterwards? Or what about a game of Risk or Monopoly?” She queried, suddenly a lot more relaxed about their being stuck together. In fact, she wasn’t jealous of Melissa and Byron anymore… Just the opposite, she decided on a clever plan to fix the two of them up together.. that would hopefully work, with a little bit of help from her design team, and Madison of course.. But for the moment, she’d have to start putting the wheels into motion.

“Why don’t you two gather stuff so we can make a snowman, whilst I
go have a quick shower to clean up?” She questioned, hopefully innocently enough.

He was in agony. The pain from the poison was coursing though him. He could feel it. His joints were stiffening and his muscles contracting. After all the he had done for Melissa, how could she do this to him. He gave her a job. Let her clean and take care of him. Let her proof read his material even before sending it off to Madison. Let her run most of his errands and this was the thanks he received. Death in a manner most foul. Well he was not going down without a fight. He tried to scramble to his feet, but the effects of poison were too great. The agony to intense. He could hardly move.

In desperation he put his finger in a blotch of Madison’s blood that he had slipped on previously. He was going to write Melissa’s name on the floor for the police to find, literally fingering her, as the old police saying went. But he suddenly realized it would not work. Melissa would see. Besides, she was such a fanatic about cleaning even if she failed to see him write something incriminating she would surely mop it up later. C.S.I. was no match for her.

That is when he heard it. A voice nearby saying, braaaaaaaaains? He blinked and looked over. Madison? Alive? Impossible. He looked at her noting her neck seemed broken. Then again it came, braaaaaains.

“What the devil? No. No way. You didn’t? You couldn’t?” Even his bewildered mind was starting to catch on. “You did?”

That is when Melissa broke up laughing and spilled the beans, so to speak. She even had the nerve to offer Madison more coffee.

For a long moment Byron sat there, taking it all in. A trick. A stinking, lousy, rotten female trick! His stomach twisted in knots. This time not from some phantom poison, but rather from embarrassment. His facial expression twisted as if he had bitten into something rotten. He had been had and he did not like it. Already his mind was turning to thought of vengeance. Vengeance most foul!